{"id":180206,"date":"2025-09-30T14:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/180206\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:12:12","slug":"nhl-rumor-mill-september-30-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/180206\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumor Mill \u2013 September 30, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest on the Panthers, an update on Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov<\/a>, the Blackhawks are shopping winger Lukas Reichel<\/a>, and more in today\u2019s NHL Rumor Mill.<\/p>\n

THE ATHLETIC<\/a>: Pierre LeBrun reports the Florida Panthers<\/a> will have ample salary-cap flexibility once they place sidelined captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a> on long-term injury reserve to start this season. He expects they\u2019ll look at every option to replace Barkov between now and the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (NHL Images).<\/p>\n

Barkov underwent knee surgery last week and is expected to be sidelined for seven to nine months. The earliest he could return to action is late April.<\/p>\n

Panthers general manager Bill Zito is known for his aggressive moves. \u201cYou do your projections, and so that just continues,\u201d Zito said. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s something that we think makes us better as a team, we\u2019ll do it. And if not, we don\u2019t. It\u2019s really no different.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Barkov returns sooner than expected, the new postseason salary cap means the Panthers can\u2019t use up his entire $10 million cap hit and then bring him back after the regular season.<\/p>\n

SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: Zito and his staff understand they won\u2019t find anyone available who can suitably replace a leader and three-time Selke Trophy winner like Barkov. Nevertheless, they have a proven record over the last five years for making acquisitions that bolster their club. Even with the new postseason cap constraints, they could land someone who helps their chances for a Stanley Cup three-peat.<\/p>\n

UPDATE ON BLUE JACKETS FORWARD YEGOR CHINAKHOV<\/p>\n

THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Aaron Portzline reported on \u201cX\u201d<\/a> that Yegor Chinakhov<\/a> skated on the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 fourth line the last two days, and he hadn\u2019t been part of their power-play practices.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old forward refused to comment on the situation. Meanwhile, head coach Dean Evason said they are still evaluating their forward line, noting that Chinakhov worked hard and did the right things during his three preseason games.<\/p>\n

SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: Chinakhov requested a trade through his agent in July, citing \u201cmisunderstandings\u201d with Evason. He seemed happy with how things were going with the club after speaking with Evason on the eve of training camp, but he hasn\u2019t rescinded his request.<\/p>\n

BLACKHAWKS SHOPPING LUKAS REICHEL<\/p>\n

THE ATHLETIC<\/a>: Scott Powers reports the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> explored trading Lukas Reichel<\/a> during the offseason. In the last few days, they\u2019ve let teams know that the 23-year-old winger is available.<\/p>\n

Powers believes it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess where Reichel starts this season. He could be traded, claimed off waivers by another club, demoted to the Blackhawks\u2019 AHL affiliate, or start the season on their roster.<\/p>\n

SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: The Blackhawks chose Reichel in the first round (17th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft. He was expected to become a scoring winger, but has struggled to meet expectations. With younger players already in the lineup and others within the Blackhawks\u2019 prospect pool pushing for NHL jobs, Reichel could be running out of time to establish himself.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Reichel believed that he was going to be traded to the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> at one point during this summer. Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman believes they could move the young forward, who might welcome the change.<\/p>\n

SPORTSNET:<\/a> During Monday\u2019s \u201c32 Thoughts: The Podcast\u201d, Elliotte Friedman said there will be teams looking at the waiver wire for goaltending depth.<\/p>\n

Friedman observed that Michael DiPietro<\/a> of the Boston Bruins<\/a> and Clay Stevenson<\/a> of the Washington Capitals<\/a> could hit the waiver wire this week. He said he\u2019s \u201creally curious\u201d to see if they pass through waivers or get traded beforehand.<\/p>\n

SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: DiPietro is expected to be the starting goalie for the Bruins\u2019 AHL affiliate in Providence, while Stevenson is supposed to fill the starter\u2019s job for the Capitals\u2019 AHL team in Hershey. Neither player is waiver-exempt this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest on the Panthers, an update on Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov, the Blackhawks are shopping winger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-180206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}